Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Red onions pack a cancer-fighting punch

Onions as a superfood are still not well known. But they contain one
of the highest concentrations of quercetin, a type of flavonoid.

A new study revealed that the red onion not only has high
levels of quercetin, but also high amounts of anthocyanin, which
enriches the scavenging properties of quercetin molecules.

Anthocyanin is instrumental in providing colour to fruits and
vegetables so it makes sense that the red onions, which are darkest in
colour, would have the most cancer-fighting power.

Published recently in Food Research International, the
study involved placing colon cancer cells in direct contact with
quercetin extracted from the five different onion varieties.

"We found onions are excellent at killing cancer cells," said the lead author. "Onions activate pathways that encourage cancer cells to
undergo cell death. They promote an unfavourable environment for cancer
cells and they disrupt communication between cancer cells, which
inhibits growth."

The researchers have also recently determined onions are effective at killing breast cancer cells.